This Is What Revolution Looks Like

Posted on Nov 15, 2011

Welcome to the revolution. Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they cannot speak. They are as dead and useless to us as the water-soaked books, tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, food boxes and clothes that were tossed by sanitation workers Tuesday morning into garbage trucks in New York City. They have no ideas, no plans and no vision for the future.

Our decaying corporate regime has strutted in Portland, Oakland and New York with their baton-wielding cops into a fool’s paradise. They think they can clean up “the mess”—always employing the language of personal hygiene and public security—by making us disappear. They think we will all go home and accept their corporate nation, a nation where crime and government policy have become indistinguishable, where nothing in America, including the ordinary citizen, is deemed by those in power worth protecting or preserving, where corporate oligarchs awash in hundreds of millions of dollars are permitted to loot and pillage the last shreds of collective wealth, human capital and natural resources, a nation where the poor do not eat and workers do not work, a nation where the sick die and children go hungry, a nation where the consent of the governed and the voice of the people is a cruel joke.

Get back into your cages, they are telling us. Return to watching the lies, absurdities, trivia and celebrity gossip we feed you in 24-hour cycles on television. Invest your emotional energy in the vast system of popular entertainment. Run up your credit card debt. Pay your loans. Be thankful for the scraps we toss. Chant back to us our phrases about democracy, greatness and freedom. Vote in our rigged political theater. Send your young men and women to fight and die in useless, unwinnable wars that provide corporations with huge profits. Stand by mutely as our bipartisan congressional supercommittee, either through consensus or cynical dysfunction, plunges you into a society without basic social services including unemployment benefits. Pay for the crimes of Wall Street.

The rogues’ gallery of Wall Street crooks, such as Lloyd Blankfein at Goldman Sachs, Howard Milstein at New York Private Bank & Trust, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers and Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase & Co., no doubt think it’s over. They think it is back to the business of harvesting what is left of America to swell their personal and corporate fortunes. But they no longer have any concept of what is happening around them. They are as mystified and clueless about these uprisings as the courtiers at Versailles or in the Forbidden City who never understood until the very end that their world was collapsing. The billionaire mayor of New York, enriched by a deregulated Wall Street, is unable to grasp why people would spend two months sleeping in an open park and marching on banks. He says he understands that the Occupy protests are “cathartic” and “entertaining,” as if demonstrating against the pain of being homeless and unemployed is a form of therapy or diversion, but that it is time to let the adults handle the affairs of state. Democratic and Republican mayors, along with their parties, have sold us out. But for them this is the beginning of the end.

The historian Crane Brinton in his book “Anatomy of a Revolution” laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis. Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.

With the Leftist antisemitism and many hammers that shatter glass windows in Portland, Oakland, and now the New York Occupy Wall Street locations we are seeing the precise equivalent of Krystallnacht in America—- and this is no surprise because Leftists are like the fascist Nazis of Germany in the 1930—s. Exactly the same!

Krystallnacht in America is happening right now all over America—from coast to coast—and will probably happen in the capital when the Occupiers there can take their hammers to the windows there.

“I was quite frankly surprised by the amount of nearly universal enthusiasm the Occupy Wall Street movement produced. I expected it to see it either degenerate into the internecine strategic squabbles the left seems traditionally heir to or to wither with the first gusts of impending winter. Neither seemed to occur. The occupations drew a constant stream of celebrities, journalists, and progressive politicians eager to lend support. I was beginning to change my mind about the possibility of non-violent protest as OWS linked up with McKibben’s opposition to the X-L Pipeline.

That is history now. Democracy (which has almost always been an illusion in this damned country) now resides as garbage in a New York landfill. The burning question for us is, What’s next?”

“Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage and intentional community of about 50 people set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Our goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.”http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

Robes, Venezuelanalysis is not even. some good things and some stuff that’s
transparent propaganda..

If you’ve got a link to some of those ‘major UN studies”, I would be pleased to
learn why venezuela isn’t doing as bad as I believe it to be doing.

The political system is obviously buggered by Chavez and is far too
authoritarian for anyone’s taste. the concentration of power into the Chavez’s
hands and the gerrymandering of the districts is undeniable.

The economy is clearly faltering, and it’s based on a single industry whose
output has declined to the point where it’s down about 30% over the last 15
years.

Chavez came to power and did good things, but those days have gone AFAIK.

I like the part of this essay where he talks about the movement making demands that are impossible for the current regime to satisfy. That’s why the most interesting part of Occupy Wall Street, to me, is the kids who are working on this on-line constitution… it’s pretty rough, but it certainly satisfies the condition of being un-satisfiable…. http://constitution.wikia.com/wiki/AnonymousConstitution

Thank you as always Chris Hedges. i have reposted this on different sites. God
Bless & Keep You.

This revolution is the start of the “revolution in values” that Martin King spoke
of so long ago. It is without precedent AND there is hope, because world wide
communication is now at most of our fingertips. “transparency” is a done deal.

btw, as someone that has experienced hunger and violence as a direct result of
poverty, i find some of the above remarks ignorant and willfully uninformed.

the sad truth is, that the 1% OWN EVERYTHING, so how is a constitutionally
sanctioned peaceful right of assembly possible when there is NO SPACE TO
CONDUCT IT IN?

rule of law would indicate that those destroying the property of OWS be held
accountable. of course, we all Know that’s a JOKE. the criminal class OWNS this
country.

OWS has been extremely clear about demands, having worked with lawyers to
create the first lists and been very clear (how many signs does it take?) about
what they (WE!) are concerned with changing.

May we live in a world where ALL are free from want and able to walk in dignity!

God Bless the Activists that have put their lives on the line for the founding laws
and principles of this country! May we be wise enough to find the GENEROSITY
that it would require to share those principals with the world in a true way and
abandon the death machine of force that cares only for profit and how many it
may MURDER.

OWS, God Bless You. when i hear those of you young enough to speak so loudly
and clearly and energetically, i weep for joy with a new hope, and pray for you.
SOLIDARITY! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!

Thank you as always Chris Hedges. i have reposted this on different sites. God Bless & Keep You.

This revolution is the start of the “revolution in values” that Martin King spoke of so long ago. It is without
precedent AND there is hope, because world wide communication is now at most of our fingertips.
“transparency” is a done deal.

btw, as someone that has experienced hunger and violence as a direct result of poverty, i find some of
the above remarks ignorant and willfully uninformed.

the sad truth is, that the 1% OWN EVERYTHING, so how is a constitutionally sanctioned peaceful right of
assembly possible when there is NO SPACE TO CONDUCT IT IN?

rule of law would indicate that those destroying the property of OWS be held accountable. of course, we
all Know that’s a JOKE. the criminal class OWNS this country.

OWS has been extremely clear about demands, having worked with lawyers to create the first lists and
been very clear (how many signs does it take?) about what they (WE!) are concerned with changing.

May we live in a world where ALL are free from want and able to walk in dignity!

God Bless the Activists that have put their lives on the line for the founding laws and principles of this
country! May we be wise enough to find the GENEROSITY that it would require to share those principals
with the world in a true way and abandon the death machine of force that cares only for profit and how
many it may MURDER.

OWS, God Bless You. when i hear those of you young enough to speak so loudly and clearly and
energetically, i weep for joy with a new hope, and pray for you. SOLIDARITY! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!

There is nothing written in the First Amendment about permits, curfews, safety and health issues, megaphones, drugs, tents, sleeping bags, generators, books, teach ins, being naked or saying mean things about the gilded fascist elite. It doesn’t mention the number of people required to be an assembly or even if they must be U.S. citizens.

The only requirement for a constitutionally lawful assembly is being peaceful.

The kind of violence being committed by the police under orders of their city administrators is Domestic Terrorism as defined by the U.S. Patriot Act.

People should start pressing charges against these domestic terrorists. Take their photos, get videos and find witnesses willing to testify. Then go to the DA’s office and demand arrests! Next, go to the FBI, the CIA or even to the U.S.Military and demand the criminals be designated as domestic terrorists. The law is for everyone to use, so use it!

The worst thing I see happening at any of the occupied sites is police behaving like the SS. If they are now exclusively serving the corporatocracy rather than “serving and protecting” the 99% the public), then some serious reforms need to be made to the police force both in terms of their composition and to civilian oversight of their operations.

@heretrochromatic, that’s the right-wing, corporate media line about Venezuela. It’s not some perfect utopia but it has the most progressive system in Latin America at the moment according to the all the major UN studies. Even polling firms aligned with the neofascist opposition confirm that Venezuelans are the most satisfied and optimistic people in the region when it comes to their government. New labour laws are advancing forms of workers’ control and liberatarian socialism not being attempted anywhere else in the industrialized world.

Might I ask then how much hunger is unacceptable to you? How many unemployed until a tipping point? The facts are that many children go hungry in this nation, estimates as high as 1/6 of our population battle hunger. That conditions elsewhere are worse seems a poor measure of acceptability to me.

You call this movement a “minor rebellion” and I am certain that many revolutions gave this first impression yet became what you deny OWS might become. Why I wonder do you seemingly reek of such despair? Does anyone know what the future holds for OWS? No, but one is certainly free to conjecture, even to pour cold water on the hopes of many of us.

You claim that conditions are not bad enough to foment revolution and also disparage the idea of revolution because many ended tragically. This despite the obvious fact that every attempt is being made to make this a nonviolent revolution, at least on the part of the great majority of OWS protestors..

So then, shall we await the conditions that ,while more conducive to revolution are also more destructive to so many? Or is it possible that, glimpsing the future and following the trends one might be motivated to begin now rather than wait?

I do not mean this response as anything but expressing my puzzlement at such an unfamiliar position from you. Hedges is not to everyone’s taste I understand and you certainly have a right to your opinion of his style and his direction.

That you end with a paeon to hope for the movement, after denigrating its chances in several paragraphs, is even more of a puzzle.

Bloomberg is of the .1%, and is protecting his personal interests. The man is typical of everything the protest is about, having altered the rules as he became mayor for a third term.

I do believe, however, that it would best promote the issues with daily rush and lunch hour marches on Wall Street and around city hall on a Monday-Friday basis rather than a camp in. Educational sessions could be scheduled for Central Park on weekends (I would use the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty, but it’s closed for a year of renovations).

I do not see this as a battle either won or lost. It seems more like theatre to me. Police raiding in the middle of the night makes Bloomberg (definitely one of the 1%!) look even worse. More cuts to social spending are certain to come. Then the real battles will happen. Right now “the people” are just learning to talk about the issues. And that is very important. Bloomberg is shooting himself in the foot.

“…a nation where the poor do not eat and workers do not work, a nation where the sick die and children go hungry, a nation where the consent of the governed and the voice of the people is a cruel joke.”

Injustice is glaringly obvious but Hedges exaggerates some. The poor do eat but not well unless compared to many poorer countries. Many sick do die but in nearly all cases even the impoverished sick receive medical care. The consent of the governed is the norm and the voice of Occupy Wall Street has become a cruel joke and Hedges’ cruel joke here is just that. It’s a cruel joke to assert that conditions are right for revolution and that Occupy Wall Street can affect a revolution.

Hedges has become much too far embedded in the Occupy Wall Street movement and his misperceptions stem from his vision being distorted which causes in him the inability to see our world as it is. His misperceptions are being reinforced by those he interacts with. This is not a revolution, it is a minor rebellion. Sadly, Occupy Wall Street is now singing its death knell. Occupy Wall Street, as it know exists, is dying, being killed by the media, local governments, the courts, and the excesses of elements within its midst.

Hedges should know that revolutions in Central America, and elsewhere were accompanied by deaths in the 100,000s of thousands. Many of those revolutions failed and their only legacy was death and repression.

The conditions Hedges cites as being necessary for revolution simply do not exist here in the U.S. The police are quite content with repressing Occupiers. High unemployment rates are tragic but not sufficient to cause revolution, and defections from the elite are anomalies nowhere near being defections en mass. If television is indoctrinating the masses it is not the kind of indoctrination that is conducive to revolution. The television airwaves are chocked full of decadence and scapegoating imaginary villains un-American and from minority groups. Such programming conjures up fantasies of revenge on the wicked and rebels are much more likely to be the objects of ordinary Americans hatred than are their elite leaders. Note the support for Penn State’s mythological football program; the myth being one of noble virtue. It is these myths about America that are irrationally protected by the masses.

Fortunately there are voices here there and everywhere that are aware of the mythology and it is these voices and those that learn from these voices that will, hopefully sometime in the future, change the balance of power. We are nowhere near that future at present, and the revolution when and if it occurs will be a revolution of thought gradually arrived at and hopefully free from counter productive strife and upheaval. Hedges is a firebrand and his fantasies if brought to fruition bode ill for those who he claims to revere. It is the “Winter of our Discontent” and Hedges might be willing to offer up martyrs and slaughter the sacrificial lambs but such can only be considered tragic folly with a potential for catastrophe most cruel. I have no love for Wall Street Scoundrels and their sycophants, or patriotic scoundrels, but they are legion and there is no hope at the present time of vanquishing these legions.

Hedges needs to practice patience, doing what he does best; proffering expert social analysis. Hedges needs to take a lesson from Noam Chomsky, “I work today, for a better world tomorrow.”

Long live Occupy Wall Street, let it grow and prosper. I too am subject to irrational pipe dreaming.

Even though the police in various jurisdictions have been clearing out the protestors to “clean” and to “protect” the area as they would have us believe. In some places the courts have said they can return after ward and they have. However whatever they weren’t allowed to remove was summarily scooped up and dumped into waiting line of garbage trucks. (No compensation) The police were even arresting or man handling members of the press and passersby on the sidewalks as well with “excessive force.”

By chosing violence over dialogue the ‘rulers’ have shown themselves as
uninterested in democracy——-

what violence has been chosen? and what dialogue has been spurned?

OWS was in Zuccotti Park quite some time, unmolested by any ‘rulers’ and
offered about zero in way of dialogue….despite attempts to get them to make a
coherent statement, they preferred to avoid doing that.

But they still have ample opportunity to dialogue. They’ll certainly be allowed to
rally in the park and proceed

Much as I would like to agree with Chris that this is a
watershed moment, I tend to agree with guest RILEY above.
Things haven’t got bad enough yet, here in Seattle we may
have an OCCUPY MOVEMENT, but far more 50,000 more went to
the Husky game the other week. I do not sense the kind of
latent revolutionary spirit, much as I would like to,
except among the very few. Great piece of writing though,
and as I’ve said before: Chris Hedges for President! > http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name

By chosing violence over dialogue the ‘rulers’ have shown themselves as uninterested in democracy (as in: rule by the people). They also cut off all avenues for much needed adjustments to the system.
Stresses and tension will continue to build up but now have nowhere to go. Every volcanologist will tell you that the volcano to look out for is the one that lies dormant for hundreds of years before it inevitably blows. Santorini wiped out entire civilisations in the mediteranean when it blew. Krakatoa could be heard across the entire world.
The greater the suppression the greater the inevitable explosion.

Or to paraphrase Babylon 5: OWS was are last best hope for peace. It failed. But in doing so it became something greater: our first step towards victory.

For by refusing to negotiate while they were still in a position of power, they ensure that once they are dragged down from their once unassailable towers there will be no negotiating then either.

Chris’s instinct and feelings are correct—- the Empire is wobbly in the legs, and its soft underbelly of a gutless, tired, and weary elite Empire is now exposed.

No, you can’t evict an idea—like real democracy. And by exposing itself as a violent Empire, the enemy of democracy has allowed the Occupy revolution to leverage Empire’s own weight to use a very effective judo move “Against Empire” [Parenti].

Krystallnachts all over America:

With the attacks on Portland, Oakland, and now the New York Occupy Wall Street locations in the middle of the night by paramilitary forces of the EMPIRE, we are seeing the precise equivalent of Krystallnacht in America—- and this is no surprise because the corporate state, like the fascist Nazi Empire in Germany in the 1930—s is precisely the same!

Krystallnacht in America is happening right now all over America—from coast to coast—and will probably happen in the capital of the new global Fourth Reich Empire in Washington DC.

Yes, the 21st century, post-nation-state global corporate/financial/militarist Empire has taken off the gloves, bared its fangs, and is now forcefully and brutally cementing the take over of our former country, which the disguised Empire had previously done over the past three decades by hiding behind the facade of its modernized TWO-Party Nazi-like “Vichy” sham of faux-democracy and totally illegitimate government—- just as the Nazi Empire’s physical attack, capture, and occupation of France employed a phony “Vichy’ government for Frenchmen who behaved, but used the tow-trucks with wire rope nooses for those who dared to confront the EMPIRE.

Occupy, you have caused embarrassment and threat to the new global Empire that controls America, and now you will be dealt with by stronger and stronger means, just as the Nazi Empire in France dealt with uncooperative and resistant Frenchmen with the wire rope noose.

This is the Krystallnacht of America, which future historians (if there are any) will record as the overt and violent take-over of a country that had already been reduced by Empire to a quiet “walking dead image’ of our promising democracy.

Empire has exposed itself as Empire, and now the revolution will really begin to make progress.

Riley, North Dakota is the only state that has its own bank that is why you can claim those stats. But it’s only one state. I think you’re a little out of touch to what is going on throughout the country. It’s not just about being employed. It’s about earning a living wage, it’s about having a two tiered justice system. It’s about the corporate coup. North Dakota is not representative of this nation.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)
was a brilliant thinker who correctly analyzed
the cultural, social & economic system in the US.

He advocated non-violent, direct action,
with the caveat that people have a right to self-defense,
in circumstances when they are wrongfully attacked.

The followers of M.L. King & Gandhi
may tactically disagree with the use of self-defense,
but many others would agree
that being wrongfully attacked
requires more of a response
then just allowing the perpetrator injure or kill you.

One reason I keep mentioning Latin America is because, as much as I admire Chris Hedges and his brilliant work, he really should stop using Eastern Europe as some sort of revolutionary example. Yes, they overthrew the corrupt Eastern Bloc regimes, BUT they then proceeded to turn their countries into free market wastelands. History might even judge the events of 1989-1991 as part of the downward slide into the system that is now wrecking havoc everywhere.

We need to learn from our neighbors in Latin America. In Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina etc. the people rose up,held mass protests but ORGANIZED organs of popular movements ready to take power democratically and bring about real reforms, meanwhile the street movements were kept intact to apply needed pressure as seen recently in Bolivia. OWS is just an opening spark, to go all the way people must move beyond the slogans and generalized ideas and start seriously forming an alternative to smash the old order.

The capitalist state will not negotiate, it will not tolerate, it knows what it wants and is ruthlessly organized. This is what Slavoj Zizek means when he says we can still learn things from Lenin in the sense of not being afraid of forming a coherent, organized revolutionary vision to fight back. Yes, form the Soviets, branch out to the peasants and workers, create the storm, before it’s too late. OWS will either be the catalyst, or another repeat of the Spartacist uprising in Germany of January 1919.

Yes the elite must fall. We have no choice but to fight them. They are literally killing us through health care disenfranchisement, unnecessary for profit wars, job destroying, poisoning of the environment, and financial devastation and debt slavery. Today the American dream is to have a roof over your head and be able to see a doctor. Millions can’t afford both and a huge number, mostly unknown, can’t afford either.

We have no choice but to see that change is enacted or die and watch our loved ones die. Not happening. Let the elite go live in their own private Idaho. But who will clean their toilets?

Things the Occupiers have made clear to millions, even if they disband and never do another thing:
1. They discovered and showed the effectiveness of “the people’s mic” giving a unified human voice to the previously voiceless people who were denied amplification by the (short-sighted) system.
2. The persistent but non-aggressive repetition of Berkeley students resisting police aggression by standing firm and shouting: “Don’t beat students!Don’t beat students!” effectively defused police aggression.
3. By including in camps and living with “street people” and coping with human waste without plumbing, etc. then being forcibly removed by police
and defamed by media as “dirty” “filthy” “health
hazards” etc. they pointed up (without preaching) the greater “filth” in the “system” of neglect, poor health and homelessness insituted by the greed of the 1%.
4. Illustrating the use of human-friendly horizontal decision-making in contrast to top-down rule by self-appointed minorities.
5. By the trashing of camps and filling dump trucks and hauling them off containing personal possessions that were publicly called “the detritus of democracy”, they permitted the point to be made that “trashing people” and hauling people off to jail in police busses is not all that different in intent or in result.
6. The occasional “defections” from the 1% shown by official people of conscience who came forward alone to face personal losses, plus the public admissions of some police, unions and some media people as “part of the 99%” worked as public evidence of the fact that the line between
“sympathizers” and “opposition” is fluid and gradually moving toward support for the Movement—convictions to “go public” that are based on experiential evidence from “working inside the beast” , so to speak.
Remarkable contributions made in a very brief time span, and on a national scale. Can you think of more?

Great article. I have been posting it on Occupy facebook pages across the country
and world. Thank you Chris. It was nice to get to chat with you in Liberty Square
that Monday after the Occupy Times Square march. Democracy Incorporated by
Sheldon Wolin is a must read.

Foreign War Correspondent, degree from Harvard Divinity School, and now we find
out the guy was a boxer, who would have thought.

Man did I ever stumble into the wrong chat room! Have a nice revolution, all of you. Never mind that you have no more idea what would replace THE CENTER than the ecstatic crowds in Libya and Egypt. Look at the history of rule by true believers. It isn’t pretty. Does that go for current history too, am I lying? I must say, though, the quality of your writing and many of the insights I’ve found on Truthdig are excellent. Starting with Scheer, whom I’ve read and admired for years, posting a flaming letter to the editor in the LA Times threatening to end my subscription when he was discontinued a few years ago. Certain subjects do induce fervor within me, so perforce I’m defensive on the subject of true believers as well. Perhaps we are all true believers, but do we have to be secular humanists too?

like the pod people in ‘invasion of the body snatchers’, the american
government has been replaced by representatives of multi national
corporations whose only goal is to suck all the money out of the
country, then let the remaining peasants fight it out and rot. they will
continue to suck the life out of america like spiders until nothing is left
to take, and when the killing is done, they’ll be gone.

unfortunately for them, they always overestimate their ability. unable to
subdue afghanistan, iraq, etc, they are stretching themselves thin, but
they still have plenty of ammo left.

‘stretch a bow to the very fullest, and you will wish you had stopped in
time’ lao tse

‘keep your troops in the field too long, you will deplete your resources
and bankrupt your nation, and destroy the morale of your troops’.
sun tsu

The iron boot of law and order has finally come to rest on the face of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It looks like the occupation and the protests that have captured the imagination of peace loving, democratic people worldwide is being exterminated as the locations in New York, Oakland and other cities are being cleared by jackbooted storm troopers under the direction of mayors bowing to the very interests the movement opposes.

We are now forced to revisit a terrible axiom: What shall be done when the avenues of peaceful, non-violent revolution are no longer available? Are we expected to fold our tents and go home? I have tried to emphasize that I am not an advocate of violence, yet with every violent act of the President, both political parties and city officials, the irrelevance of non-violence continues to be driven home. With every drone strike, every act of torture we commit and with every caving to corporate power, our government asks us with a Bush-like smirk, What are you going to do about it? The union of government authority and corporate power (that Mussolini first labeled fascism) is on the march. None of the 99% are safe from this runaway perversion that has now become the next great step in the mad rush of civilization to destroy humanity and our life-sustaining planet.

I was quite frankly surprised by the amount of nearly universal enthusiasm the Occupy Wall Street movement produced. I expected it to see it either degenerate into the internecine strategic squabbles the left seems traditionally heir to or to wither with the first gusts of impending winter. Neither seemed to occur. The occupations drew a constant stream of celebrities, journalists, and progressive politicians eager to lend support. I was beginning to change my mind about the possibility of non-violent protest as OWS linked up with McKibben’s opposition to the X-L Pipeline.

That is history now. Democracy (which has almost always been an illusion in this damned country) now resides as garbage in a New York landfill. The burning question for us is, What’s next?

Going after a nameless, faceless, 1% is a witch hunt, sinmple mob mentality. Camping out in sleeping bags and wasting millions of hours of human energy in public parks is an impotent message from people who are giving their power away.

Where’s the encampment infront of the gates of Exxon? Wheres the rallies in front of the Koch bros mansions? Where is anybody doing anything against the real destroyers of America? They need to be identified, tried in public, and brought down. War cries about a faceless enemy called “the 1%” are a tragic waste of time and a fools errand.

“I bring this up because there’s a fundamental
problem with “revolution” in America today: we no
longer know how to do it and frankly, I don’t think
Americans have the stomach for it. After all, at the
end of the day, most Americans are “comfortable” or
more accurately they have been reduced to being
“consumers.””

You have to read Hedges’ book because he talks very
pointedly about just this - about how Americans have
been lulled into passivity by media and by
manipulation from big corporations and you begin to
see how insidious the whole thing is; the overall
picture is bleak - that we are sheep of the state and
that’s how they want to keep us - compliant. We have
to wake up to see what is happening to us - to shake
off the torpor and get back to angry, rise up!

I’m sorry to be such a downer but I don’t think we’ve entered the stage of real
govenment counter occupatiuon oppression in the US. These people have no
second thoughts about slaughter. I’m not trying to stoke the flames of fear. Just
saying that this latest corridnated of tent removal canpaign is little more than a
harbinger. It’s gong to take a lot more interference, occupation, building of
understanding, endurance inconveience and even real pain within the 99 get real
change. Of course it would be great to avoid the really bad stuff and that’s why
nonviolent civil disobedience must remain dogma.

Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg! Why? Because his actions will guarantee that this
movement spreads! More and more people will wake up to realise that it’s not just
the wealthy and corporations that should have the right to make their voices
heard.http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2011/11/un-occupied/

On our local NPR affiliate they broadcast a BBC program called “World Have Your Say.” This morning they broadcasted from the (former) OWS site and, as always, they do “man on the street” interviews..and, as always they managed to speak with the most inarticulate, disjointed and “odd” people who participated in the movement. They also, spoke with a woman who, OF COURSE, brought up the “filth” issue and proceeded to go on about “the proper locations” for protests and how the protester’s rights don’t trump other people’s rights…..blah, blah, blah, blah…......By contrast whenever these same bozos from the BBC had a chance to put a “TeaBagger” on the air, they’d let them go on-and-on without much question. It just strikes me as odd how the Media has treated OWS…

I bring this up because there’s a fundamental problem with “revolution” in America today: we no longer know how to do it and frankly, I don’t think Americans have the stomach for it. After all, at the end of the day, most Americans are “comfortable” or more accurately they have been reduced to being “consumers.” It’s a much lower bar of existence than being a citizen which takes hard work. Being a citizen means “putting up” with someone else exercising his/her rights. But in today’s America if a “business man/woman” is inconvenienced then protest is somehow interpreted as a “sin against job creators” or worse yet, a rejection of “capitalism.” If it wasn’t so predictable and staged and pathetic it would be comical.

It’s hard to be a citizen today, because when you try to be one, the elites send out their para-military battalions to “clean up the filth.” This is why I continue to believe “occupying” any literal space is a mistake for a 21st Century revolution. The battle will be won, as always, in the hearts and minds of the people who, when they finally wake from their (Huxleian) slumber realize that they’ve been enabling the very despots whom they despise.

Personally, I’ve expected for many years these days would have to come, hoped they would lead somewhere better, feared where we would pass through on the way, done what seemed to me best to help it happen.

I wish to ask if historian Brinton discussed the stage of a revolution where the successful revolutionaries line people like me up against a wall & execute us on grounds of insufficient zeal?

Speaking of boxers, “The Boxer” is my favorite Paul Simon song. Onwards, we have witnessed soldiers in socialist and communist nations refuse to fire on their compatriots. I don’t recall many bourgeois democracies where the goons of the ruling class have refused to fire on their compatriots, Guatemala, Ireland, El Salvador, Chile, Mexico, the USA. And on and on. Who was that oligarch in the USA who said I can always hire half the working class to kill the other half? I don’t see the police or the Army turning against the ruling class, not in the USA. Maybe the National Guard. The police in the USA have never turned against the ruling class, and that is why they are so pampered, well-paid, excellent perks. The Highway Patrol in California can retire at 50 with something like 95% of pay. Let us not forget the line in “Prizzy’s Honor”: “How long can your officer’s survive without our bribes (the Mafia speaking”) I wish I were more sanguine, but I don’t see it happening. I recall that video of the US soldiers in that helicopter in Iraq shooting down the cameraman, the six women, the man and his two children and then they laughed about it. Landed the copter and proceeded to use their knives to extract the bullets from the bodies, evidence you see. People such as these live in your neighborhood.

Chris Hedges has been there, knows it, understands
it, has seen it happen, has reported it. Follow his
comments closely and their will be no “surprise” when
the inevitable government collapse happens. I
recall my astonishment back in the late 1980’s and
early 90’s as the Eastern European and Soviet regimes
fell, one by one, fell. The reporting of these
events was disjointed, diverted, uninterpreted and
presented those historic events as isolated instances
without any viable interpretation of the
fundamentals.

But Hedges is different, he is explicitly mentioning
the socio-political, philosophical and even
sociological concomitants and essentials which can be
used as guidelines in reviewing our national protest
events. There need be no surprise when the
inevitable happens.

Chris is right: the charade is over. The mask has come down and the gloves have come off. From now on, it will be sheer violence and brutality. They’re scared and this is how they show it. Sadly, all of this could have been avoided only if people had paid attention instead of following in like sheep. It’s too late now, a great deal of bloodshed, violence and carnage awaits. Let that be a lesson to generations to come to forever stay vigilant.

It seems like an appropriate time to rename OWS since
it’s now morphed into a new mobile entity.

I’d like to offer up “American Spring” in solidarity
with our beleaguered bretheren in the Middle East.

From where I sit I see little difference between the
two movements or the reaction from the security
states on both continents. So much for a kinder
gentler democracy under Obama. Obama is the US’s Tony
Blair, every bit as disingenuous and bloodthirsty.

I’d also like to table a motion to have King
Bloomberg of the 1% recalled. Who’s wi’ me?

Don’t waste your brain cells in pissing contests…the revolution is on….and that electric
current that surges through you, once you realize you can take it…is you actually living,
not living through others, or watching some one live life for you in some useless T.V.
Simulacra…

According to Riley we get to wait for it to get much worse, yeah it is not so bad, an actual 19 percent are unemployed those employed are working shit wages and crappy hours, part time so they don’t have benefits.

People are being kicked out of their home, college graduates have debt with no jobs, the size of a Snickers bar has become like a gallon of ice cream. Money in most peoples pockets goes from pay day to pay day.

From what I heard there ain’t no recession going on, though it may be coming soon to communities near you!

Inequality is not so bad if you can still afford to attend a football game. Disenfranchisement is not so bad when the 1 percent can hire you to take out their garbage. Being part of the 99 percent is not so bad when your Representative government is bought and sold like prostitutes to the highest bidder.

Everything is just rosy peachy if you are the 1 percent! The 99 percent are just a bunch of panty wasted whiners, who do not understand the dedication Congress has for themselves!

Long past time that someone finally said it outright—this IS revolution and there is the beginning of an organized resistance. Those who truly support this country are about opposing the evil empire.

The evil empire is scared—what more do I need to see than them sneaking in like thieves in the middle of the night to do their dirty work? If they believed they were doing the right thing, they’d do it at high noon. The night belongs to criminals.

Thank you Chris Hedges! Your words and expertise are like arrows in flight to the hearts of the elitist rapists!

I used to be a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, and I always wondered what was really taking place beneath our failed immigration and drug war policies. Today I understand. It is the same insidious greed that is behind failed banks, failed mortgages, illegal wars, failed health care,failed government, and a failing economy.

Five to ten million Mexican undocumented have been pushed and lured here by the same bi-national elite rapes U.S. citizens too . 40,000 dead in Mexico from the failed U.S. backed war on drugs and no end in sight.

I invite all undocumented Mexicans and victims of the Mexican war on drugs to join OWS. Victimization by the unscrupulous knows no borders and humans need no papers to participate.

On behalf of those Canadians that think like me I am sorry that Kevin O’Leary was such an arrogant asshole in the CBC interview. He represents himself which is an idiot. Myself and many other Canadians have written to the CBC in protest and I was hoping for a better outcome but unfortunately even in Canada being a milionaire means way more than being a cordial and law abiding citizen.

heterochromatic, listed the following quote; “cleaning up their own physical messes” yes of course this is expected of the 99 percent, while Hedges makes it clear why the 1 percent expects in one hand and may be getting what it deserves in the other, resentment. More clearly stated below.

Hedges writes;... “Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they cannot speak. They are as dead and useless to us as the water-soaked books, tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, food boxes and clothes that were tossed by sanitation workers Tuesday morning into garbage trucks in New York City. They have no ideas, no plans and no vision for the future. ”

All I only can add,.... ihis is not only about Tuesday mornings trickle down Ann Rand, Adolf Hitler or Mussolini manifestation cited as theory.

hedges pontificates? ha! this is a human being with well documented, real life EXPERIENCE and has seen more than many of us will in our combined lifetimes.

try this - hedges is a true american patriot, think 18th century american throwback. here is the definition fyi:

a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion, a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, especially of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

hedges pontificates? ha! human being with well documented, real life EXPERIENCE and has seen more than many of us will in our combined lifetimes.

try this - hedges is a true american patriot, think 18th century american throwback. here is the definition fyi:

a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion, a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, especially of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

@heterochromatic (Whatever the fuck that means!) You
don’t get it, do you? Who is cleaning up the mess left
by all the oligarchs? Are you? Do you enjoy it? Do
you think revolution should be staged on a pretty
stage? Do you think it’s reality TV?

I suspect America will just grind on and downwards for a few more decades even
after the plutocracy has retired itself out from boredom. The proles wouldn’t have
watched the revolution even if it had been televised. They are very content
watching celebrities dance in 7.1 surround audio.

With respect, the living conditions and political disconnectedness of the average
American isn’t nearly as bad as was the case in ANY of the former regimes you mention
in your piece. In fact your exaggerations would be laughable if they weren’t so
disrespectful to the millions worldwide who are TRULY repressed (often by American
powers that be). Things just aren’t that bad in the USA for most people yet. The vast
majority is still employed; in small towns and cities all over America things continue to
Work well. Things might suck in parts of New York but in North Dakota there’s full
employment and the state has no debt. Now, it might not be cool to live there but you’re
out of touch. More people were at the last New York Jets game than the last week of
OWS protests. Propose some actual policies. Then people can get behind you for real.
Your piece just reads like the rantings of a first year political studies student.

I would like to see ‘Occupy’ take some time to celebrate the advent of ‘real’ information such as that provided by whistleblowers like Wikileaks.

Such an event would go a long way toward protecting them and promoting the continuance of intelligence needed for effective reform. Corollary: How can effective reform occur without real information?

Wikileaks has sent shockwaves through countries throughout the world. It’s no wonder these governments have been so eager to ‘muzzle’ news of their own misdeeds. Their reactions underscore the vital need for scrutiny.

I’m hoping people in the ‘Occupy’ encourage established institutions to get behind Assange and Manning: For example, If Wikileaks was awarded a Pulitzer for journalism or a Nobel Peace prize.

Farfetched? That could happen were there to be a massive outcry demanding it. Who has more effect on world peace than those who blow the whistle on the slaughter - and put their lives on the line in so doing?

Heroism such as this needs to be celebrated and carefully protected.

Datacell is one of the gateway donation sites that have been closed. They still provide timely news.

It would be a mistake for anyone to interpret what is happening down on Wall Street as a fad that will blow over the moment the weather hits the freezing mark. The fact of the matter is that weeda people are doing what we should have done twenty-five years ago. This imbalance between rich and poor cannot possibly continue. I don’t know about you but I’m not particularly crazy about returning to a new Gilded Age. This is not just an American phenomenon. This is happening all over the world. OCCUPY THE PLANET EARTH, BABY! Anyone who thinks they can put a stop to this is in for a seriously rude awakening. A historical tide cannot be turned back. Try it sometime.

Whether the preconditions for revolution are present now in the US or not takes
nothing away from the moral force of this argument, which relies on the dignity
and indomitable nature of the human spirit.

There is a very deep and compelling argument made here - which is why I love
Mr. Hedges!

Two observations:

1) I’m reading that the crackdowns were coordinated at a national level - any intel
on that?

2) How about a Winter of Love - San Diego! (a la San Francisco ‘67)

Adjourn encampments for the winter, head to where the climate suits my clothes,
conduct Occupy San Diego unified planning/mobilization sessions - right into
the belly of the 1% beast!

I just posted this article on my Facebook page and
the first response I got was this, “This 100aire in
Covington gets the cause but wants to add that they
could look better if they cleaned up their physical
messes, not hating, just sayin…it would save tax
money.”

I responded: ” Look better? Ya think they ought to
have hair stylists and wardrobe come in each day and
give them a makeover so they’ll look “good?” WTF are
you talkiing about?”

Soon the mighty will fall all over themselves denying
their crimes and complicities, begging to get their
stuff out the trash. Will we be kind to garbage
pickers? I think the first thing dissenters learn
is,“People before stuff. Stuff don’t matter.”

For years we will endure the mentally broken Ayn
Rands among us crying over a “lost birthright” that
never really existed. You are who you are, and where
you are is where you’re at. No more absentee
ownership!

Clearing Zucotti Park is not a set back, it is an opportunity. The movement will not end, only change and strengthen over the winter. Connections within and without this country will be made. Organizing will happen.

it will be interesting to see how many of the police are members/believers in the “oathkeepers” organization. it is rather hopeful, and will be interesting, to see if the police will turn against their superiors and disobey orders should it come to firing on “occupiers”. if they do, the “occupiers” will possibly win. if not, then…

times have changed since the 60’s where police were police and not the militarized units we have now with the military grade weapons/technology.

something not addressed - if the “occupiers” win, then what? should that plan be released, and accepted by the general public, OWS would have a lot more support and less disdain. the problem with most “revolutions” is that few think past the victory.